Slideshow: 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Preview

A Consumer Electronics Show with technology design engineers can appreciate? The 2012 International CES, coming to Las Vegas in January, has it, and we've got the pictures to prove it.

I went to the CES press preview in New York on November 8. In years past, the focus was tilted heavily toward 3D televisions -- cool, but a tough sale sans decent programming -- and tricked out-laptops -- not cool, no matter how colorful the chassis.

So I was happily surprised to see a surfeit of products in the Design News sweet spot. Some of those gadgets even snagged honors in the CES "Best of Innovations" awards. Winners included the Nest Learning Thermostat, LG's blast-chilling refrigerator technology, and a wearable heart rate monitor.

Click the image below to view a slideshow of these images and more from the 2012 International CES preview:

The Nest Learning Thermostat learns your preferences and adjusts its program accordingly. It also provides a guide to energy savings. It won a CES "Best of Innovations" award in the eco-design and sustainable technologies category.

There are a lot of gadgets that relate directly to Smartphones. This is a great marraige of technologies. Good to see the Smartphone being used for personal health instead of just playing "Angry Birds".

Nice to see that CES is moving beyond HDTV and 3D-TV (one year they even had a large area of recliners for watching HDTVs). This is a great collection of innovative products. I want to know how that blast chiller works.

Nice set of gadgets, Alex. I remember about 15 years ago at a family runion, my three brothers and I were contemplating technology of the future. We came up with two ideas: systems on cars that would prevent collisions and a cooler that could cool instantly the way microwaves heat instantly.

What a great compilation of fun gear--for engineers and non-engineers alike. I see huge potential for the TailGater and in my house, it's those MOD ski googles that are most-likely candidates for the wish list. Interesting they transmit data to Android phones--no mention of iPhones ... maybe says something about the target audience.

I have a couple of electrical engineering buddies I know would go gaga over the Lutron Home Control system. Personally, the Lytro camera system seems like it could help people like me who are photographically challenged.

A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Co. quietly announced that it was rolling out a new wrinkle to the powerful safety feature called stability control, adding even more lifesaving potential to a technology that has already been very successful.

It won't be too much longer and hardware design, as we used to know it, will be remembered alongside the slide rule and the Karnaugh map. You will need to move beyond those familiar bits and bytes into the new world of software centric design.

People who want to take advantage of solar energy in their homes no longer need to install a bolt-on solar-panel system atop their houses -- they can integrate solar-energy-harvesting shingles directing into an existing or new roof instead.

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